Oh, Martin…why?
Why’d you do it?
Why’d you write-up a hit-job post on me, allow comments, and then come back a day later to delete those comments?
What was said in those comments that you – or perhaps someone more important than you – took offense to?
Yeah, he deleted the 100+ social share counters that were on the bottom of the post too.
Now it appears that no one has shared this post.
Very weak sauce.
Martin also decided to close comments on the Facebook version of his post, though he did leave all the old comments there.
I think the main reason for leaving comments there is that they’re the kind of comments Martin likes – anti-Strandberg.
And that’s fine.
We all know how effective Facebook comments are for winning an election.
Back during our special election I looked at Facebook comments on the newspaper pages as well as blog pages and various friend pages.
Guess what?
Nearly all of those comments were anti-Gianforte, and yet Gianforte won.
I think that tells you the efficacy of Facebook comments.
Mostly, what we often fail to remember in this country is the role of the Silent Majority.
They don’t comment on Facebook or blogs or newspaper articles. Hell, a lot of the times they don’t comment to anyone, keeping their opinions to themselves.
But they do vote, and their voice is heard then.
It’s why we have Trump as president, Gianforte as congressman, and a gaggle full of GOPers in our legislature and legislatures across the country.
Why’d you do it?
Why’d you write-up a hit-job post on me, allow comments, and then come back a day later to delete those comments?
What was said in those comments that you – or perhaps someone more important than you – took offense to?
- I think it was talk of the mayor’s extramarital affair.
- It could have been the mention of the mayor’s violent incident, the one that led to his entry into rehab.
- It could also have simply been the fact that I didn’t back down, held my ground, and continued to attack our fat, drunk & stupid mayor.
- It could have been the Missoula Indy calling Martin out yesterday for ‘attacking’ me after I ‘attacked’ him (the post about blog rankings).
- It could have been Martin’s silly charge that I don’t support Triepke because I questioned her in early-April, though by early-May had a post up touting her.
- It could have been the plain ol’ shoddy, hit-job, gotcha ‘journalism’ in the article that he finally realized was going to hurt him more than me.
- Or maybe Martin just decided that this particular post didn’t need comments, or social share numbers.
Yeah, he deleted the 100+ social share counters that were on the bottom of the post too.
Now it appears that no one has shared this post.
Very weak sauce.
Martin also decided to close comments on the Facebook version of his post, though he did leave all the old comments there.
I think the main reason for leaving comments there is that they’re the kind of comments Martin likes – anti-Strandberg.
And that’s fine.
We all know how effective Facebook comments are for winning an election.
Back during our special election I looked at Facebook comments on the newspaper pages as well as blog pages and various friend pages.
Guess what?
Nearly all of those comments were anti-Gianforte, and yet Gianforte won.
I think that tells you the efficacy of Facebook comments.
Mostly, what we often fail to remember in this country is the role of the Silent Majority.
They don’t comment on Facebook or blogs or newspaper articles. Hell, a lot of the times they don’t comment to anyone, keeping their opinions to themselves.
But they do vote, and their voice is heard then.
It’s why we have Trump as president, Gianforte as congressman, and a gaggle full of GOPers in our legislature and legislatures across the country.
I called Martin up on the phone at 10:30 AM to ask about his removing the comments but he wasn’t there.
I sent him a message on Twitter, but he didn’t respond.
I think Martin’s ‘gotcha’ post failed to deliver the results he wanted.
I honestly believe his post helped me.
To me, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
He just gave me more eyes, more ears for my message.
Sure, a lot of people ain’t gonna like it, but many will. Many will say, “Goddamn, finally someone’s saying it!”
Martin doesn’t like that, the idea that his post could have backfired and actually garnered me more attention, name-recognition, and possible votes.
I can’t thank Martin enough for what he did, and I hope he writes more posts about me.
I mean, let’s get real here, folks.
- Over 2 months ago I put up a post calling Missoula’s mayor a fat, drunk & stupid idiot.
- I then spread that far and wide on social media, even paying Facebook $5 to get that post out to an additional 4,000+ people.
- That got me 260+ Facebook likes on that post, in comparison to the 100+ Facebook likes Martin got on his anti-Strandberg post.
- On top of this I wrote a letter to the editor in April saying just about the exact same thing I said in my fat, drunk & stupid post.
Martin, I want people to hear what I have to say.
So once again, thanks for helping to spread the word.
I know you think this hurts me, and that’s fine.
I imagine it will look that way to a former paid-MT-Democratic hack, a former communications director, no less.
It’d probably look that way to a friend of Engen, a guy that worked with him at the failing Missoulian for many years.
Conclusion
Calling Republicans fat and stupid = good. Calling Democrats fat and stupid = bad.
Over a year ago Martin contacted me to write a weekly guest post on his site.
I did this one time and then decided to stop.
Shortly after that Martin began to call me a troll and blocked me on social media.
Weird.
Now, this idea that we can’t offend people is silly.
Trump became president because he took that path, and it set the guiding light for how people can, and perhaps should, run for office.
That’s the playbook I’m using – scorched earth.
I know lots of people won’t like that, but so what?
I’m expecting a 30% turnout for Missoula city elections this November, and a very low-information election too.
By saying it how it is, and by offending former Democratic hacks like Martin, I garner more attention and bump up the chances that more people might get interested in voting.
Could they vote against me because of my words?
You betcha!
But I’ve lost two elections before and I’m ready to lose a third, and then run again for another.
Some people just don’t quit.
Others never try; they just delete comments.
